Analysis
Spreadability is a big part of what makes social media sites so popular. People are able to put content up and have their friends, or other people that might be a part of their circle, find this content and potential share it with their circles as well. This goes on and on in a loop. When looking at popular, or once popular in one case, social media sites, one can see where this spreadability exists in all of them. When looking at Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter, each has similar features that have been changed slightly with each platform creating a similar but also very different site.
Myspace was essentially the start of popular social media. This is what came before Facebook and set the stage for today’s social media platforms. While it is basically obsolete, when looking at its set up compared to Facebook it is actually quite similar. They have similar page set ups and unlike Twitter, the content that is posted stays within a certain group. Facebook, however, has managed to make its site more marketable and expand its spreadability by letting people choose who they wish to share their content with. Myspace also gave people the opportunity to connect based on things they like and was the start of fan accounts. Myspace also allowed music to be connected to pages which could lead to exposure for the artist but also copyright issues. This idea is discussed more in depth in Abigail De Kosnik’s essay Interrogating “Free” Fan Labor (http://spreadablemedia.org/essays/kosnik/#.Wio2l0xFxXA). Facebook does not have a music feature but allows for fan pages to be made more easily than Myspace. In many ways Facebook could be viewed as an upgraded version of Myspace.
This leads into the discussion about Twitter as it probably the most well-known social media of today (I’m assuming we all know what I’m referring to). In comparison to Myspace and Facebook, Twitter is very much the outlier. It only allows a certain number of characters to be used in posts and unless the account is private, one cannot pick and choose who gets to see the content like with Facebook and Myspace. Things also have a tendency to spread faster on Twitter, making it ideal for people to share their works. Twitter has also been used, in recent years, to spread the word of what is going on across the world in a way that is faster than traditional media outlets. This is pointed out in Henry Jenkins essay Twitter Revolutions (http://spreadablemedia.org/essays/jenkins/#.Wio1tExFxXA). Twitter also uses hashtags to help spread content along quicker. This uses a specific phrase or word to mark something as a part of a certain group. This is a feature that Facebook and Myspace do not have. Twitter has managed to take certain aspects of other social media sites and make them more spreadable.
Each of these social media sites have spawned from one another. There would be no Facebook without Myspace and no Twitter without Facebook. While each site uses different features and set ups, each one has the same ability to spread information. All of these sites have changed the way people of today receive their information and how they interact with the media of today. If you would like some history on this here is a nice essay from Derek Johnson, http://spreadablemedia.org/essays/johnson/#.Wio5QUxFxXA. Without the impact of these sites, todays media world would look very different.